1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flight information providing apparatus, a flight information providing method, a flight information providing program, and a computer-readable recording medium for providing flight information on an airplane with a predetermined person aboard.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, more and more people are using airplanes as means for movement on the occasions of overseas travels, domestic travels, business trips, and so on, and the age bracket of the users spans a wide spectrum from elderly people to children.
While the number of airplane users is increasing as described, the travel by plane still involves many unstable factors including occasional cancellation, delays of arrival times, etc. due to weather, e.g., typhoons or snow.
Under such circumstances, there are the potential needs of persons concerned with a certain passenger (e.g., a family, co-workers at a company, etc.) who want to make sure as early as possible whether the pertinent passenger got aboard an expected airplane and departed safely, or whether the pertinent passenger has arrived safely at a destination.
However, the actual flight information, e.g., indicating that the airplane has actually arrived with a delay of twenty minutes, is indicated on a bulletin board at an airport, and there is no existing service for automatically and promptly informing the persons concerned with the airplane passenger, of the information. For this reason, there are eager demands for implementation of such service.
The present invention has been accomplished to solve the above problem, and an object of the invention is to provide a flight information providing apparatus, a flight information providing method, a flight information providing program, and a computer-readable recording medium capable of automatically and promptly providing flight information about an airplane with a predetermined user aboard to a predetermined destination address corresponding to the pertinent user.
For achieving the above object, a flight information providing apparatus according to the present invention is a flight information providing apparatus adapted to provide flight information on an airplane with a predetermined person aboard, said flight information providing apparatus comprising: an information provision request input section for entering an information provision request including at least identification information on said person, identification information on an airplane that said person is supposed to go aboard, and a destination address to which the information is to be provided; a storage section for storing the information provision request entered; a takeoff/landing information acquisition section for acquiring actual flight information on takeoff/landing of an airplane; an extraction section for collating the identification information on the airplane that said person is supposed to go aboard, with said actual flight information thereof to extract landing information comprising arrival information indicating that said airplane has arrived, from said actual flight information; and a transmission section for transmitting the landing information of the object airplane extracted, to a terminal unit on the basis of the destination address about said person.
A flight information providing method according to the present invention is a flight information providing method adapted to provide flight information on an airplane with a predetermined person aboard, said flight information providing method comprising: an input step of entering an information provision request including at least identification information on said person, identification information on an airplane that said person is supposed to go aboard, and a destination address to which the information is to be provided; a storage step of storing the information provision request entered; an acquisition step of acquiring actual flight information on takeoff/landing of an airplane; an extraction step of collating the identification information on the airplane that said person is supposed to go aboard, with said actual flight information thereof to extract landing information comprising arrival information indicating that said airplane has arrived, from said actual flight information; and a transmission step of transmitting the landing information of the object airplane extracted, to a terminal unit on the basis of the destination address about said person.
A flight information providing program according to the present invention is a flight information providing program adapted to provide flight information on an airplane with a predetermined person aboard, said flight information providing program being configured to make a computer execute the following steps: an input step of entering an information provision request including at least identification information on said person, identification information on an airplane that said person is supposed to go aboard, and a destination address to which the information is to be provided; a storage step of storing the information provision request entered; an acquisition step of acquiring actual flight information on takeoff/landing of an airplane; an extraction step of collating the identification information on the airplane that said person is supposed to go aboard, with said actual flight information thereof to extract landing information comprising arrival information indicating that said airplane has arrived, from said actual flight information; and a transmission step of transmitting the landing information of the object airplane extracted, to a terminal unit on the basis of the destination address about said person.
Incidentally, the above-stated flight information providing apparatus, flight information providing method, and flight information providing program according to the present invention are based on the same technical concept and are interpretations of the technical concept from an aspect of the flight information providing apparatus, from an aspect of the flight information providing method, and from an aspect of the flight information providing program, respectively.
For this reason, the following will describe a solution to the problem by the flight information providing apparatus according to the present invention, but it is noted that solutions to the problem by the flight information providing method and the flight information providing program are also based on the same concept.
In the flight information providing apparatus according to the present invention, an operator enters through the information provision request input section, the information provision request including at least the identification information on the person, the identification information on the airplane that the person is supposed to go aboard, and the destination address to which the information is to be delivered, whereupon the storage section stores the information provision request thus entered. On the other hand, the takeoff/landing information acquisition section acquires the actual flight information about takeoff/landing of the airplane, whereupon the extraction section collates the identification information on the airplane that the person is supposed to go aboard, with the actual flight information. If the pertinent airplane has already arrived, the actual flight information at this time contains the arrival information indicating that the pertinent airplane has arrived. Thus the extraction section extracts the landing information including the arrival information, from the actual flight information. Then the transmission section transmits the landing information of the object airplane thus extracted, to the terminal unit on the basis of the destination address about the person included in the information provision request. This permits the apparatus to automatically and promptly provide the landing information indicating that the airplane with the predetermined person aboard has safely arrived, to the user of the terminal unit (a family, co-workers at a company, etc. of the person).
In the flight information providing apparatus, the extraction section is preferably configured to extract the landing information further comprising difference information between an estimated time of arrival and an actual time of arrival about the object plane. In the flight information providing method, the extraction step is preferably configured to extract the landing information further comprising difference information between an estimated time of arrival and an actual time of arrival about the object plane. In the flight information providing program, the extraction step is preferably configured to extract the landing information further comprising difference information between an estimated time of arrival and an actual time of arrival about the object plane.
In this case, the difference information between the estimated time of arrival and the actual time of arrival about the object airplane is also provided to the user of the terminal unit, so that the user can be informed of more specific actual flight circumstances of the object airplane.
In the flight information providing apparatus, the extraction section is preferably configured to extract the landing information further comprising information indicating that the object airplane has arrived at an airport different from an expected airport and information on the airport where the object airplane has arrived. In the flight information providing method, the extraction step is preferably configured to extract the landing information further comprising information indicating that the object airplane has arrived at an airport different from an expected airport and information on the airport where the object airplane has arrived. In the flight information providing program, the extraction step is preferably configured to extract the landing information further comprising information indicating that the object airplane has arrived at an airport different from an expected airport and information on the airport where the object airplane has arrived.
In this case, the information indicating that the object airplane has arrived at the airport different from the expected airport and the information on the arriving airport is also provided to the user of the terminal unit, so that the user can be informed of more specific actual flight circumstances of the object airplane.
In the flight information providing apparatus, preferably, a server further comprises a passenger information acquisition section for acquiring actual boarding information on passengers aboard an airplane, said extraction section is configured to collate the identification information on said person and the identification information on the airplane that the person is supposed to go aboard, with said actual boarding information and said actual flight information to extract takeoff information comprising boarding information indicating that said person has actually gone aboard the expected airplane and that the airplane has taken off, from said actual boarding information and said actual flight information, and said transmission section is configured to transmit the takeoff information of the person extracted, to said terminal unit. In the flight information providing method, preferably, said acquisition step is configured to also acquire actual boarding information on passengers aboard an airplane, said extraction step is configured to collate the identification information on said person and the identification information on the airplane that the person is supposed to go aboard, with said actual boarding information and said actual flight information to extract takeoff information comprising boarding information indicating that said person has actually gone aboard the expected airplane and that the airplane has taken off, from said actual boarding information and said actual flight information, and said transmission step is configured to transmit the takeoff information of the person extracted, to said terminal unit. In the flight information providing program, preferably, said acquisition step is configured to also acquire actual boarding information on passengers aboard an airplane, said extraction step is configured to collate the identification information on said person and the identification information on the airplane that the person is supposed to go aboard, with said actual boarding information and said actual flight information to extract takeoff information comprising boarding information indicating that said person has actually gone aboard the expected airplane and that the airplane has taken off, from said actual boarding information and said actual flight information, and said transmission step is configured to transmit the takeoff information of the person extracted, to said terminal unit.
In this case, the flight information providing apparatus acquires, not only the actual flight information, but also the actual boarding information about passengers aboard the airplane by the passenger information acquisition section, whereupon the extraction section collates the identification information on the airplane that the person is supposed to go aboard, with the actual boarding information to acquire the actual boarding information about the airplane that the person is supposed to go aboard, and the extraction section collates the identification information on the person therewith to extract the information indicating that the person has gone aboard the expected airplane. Besides it, the extraction section collates the identification information on the expected airplane, with the actual flight information to extract the information indicating that the pertinent airplane has taken off. In this way the extraction section extracts the takeoff information comprising the boarding information indicating that the person has gone aboard the expected airplane and that the airplane has taken off, and the transmission section transmits to the terminal unit the takeoff information of the person thus extracted. This permits the apparatus to automatically and promptly provide the takeoff information indicating that the predetermined person has gone aboard the expected airplane and that the pertinent airplane has safely taken off, to the user of the terminal unit (the family, the co-workers at the company, etc. of the person).
In the flight information providing apparatus, the extraction section is preferably configured to extract the takeoff information further comprising difference information between an estimated time of departure and an actual time of departure about the airplane that said person is supposed to go aboard. In the flight information providing method, the extraction step is preferably configured to extract the takeoff information further comprising difference information between an estimated time of departure and an actual time of departure about the airplane that said person is supposed to go aboard. In the flight information providing program, the extraction step is preferably configured to extract the takeoff information further comprising difference information between an estimated time of departure and an actual time of departure about the airplane that said person is supposed to go aboard.
In this case, the difference information between the expected time of departure and the actual time of departure about the object airplane is also provided to the user of the terminal unit, so that the user can be informed of more specific actual flight circumstances of the object airplane.
In the flight information providing apparatus, the extraction section is preferably configured to extract the landing information further comprising actual arrival information indicating that the airplane with said person actually aboard has arrived. In the flight information providing method, the extraction step is preferably configured to extract the landing information further comprising actual arrival information indicating that the airplane with said person actually aboard has arrived. In the flight information providing program, the extraction step is preferably configured to extract the landing information further comprising actual arrival information indicating that the airplane with said person actually aboard has arrived.
In this case, the actual arrival information indicating that the airplane with the pertinent person actually aboard has arrived is also provided to the user of the terminal unit, so that the user can be informed of more specific actual flight circumstances of the object airplane.
In the flight information providing apparatus, preferably, the information provision request comprises language selection information for selection of a language about the information transmitted from the transmission section, and the extraction section is configured to manipulate the extracted information so as to be displayed in a language according to the language selection information. In the flight information providing method, preferably, the input step is configured to enter the information provision request further comprising language selection information for selection of a language about the information transmitted at the transmission step, and the extraction step is configured to manipulate the extracted information so as to be displayed in a language according to the language selection information. In the flight information providing program, preferably, the input step is configured to enter the information provision request further comprising language selection information for selection of a language about the information transmitted at the transmission step, and the extraction step is configured to manipulate the extracted information so as to be displayed in a language according to the language selection information.
In this case, the landing information and the takeoff information manipulated so as to be displayed in the language preliminarily selected, is provided to the user of the terminal unit, so that the user can understand and know the actual flight circumstances of the object airplane more easily.
In the flight information providing apparatus, the flight information providing method, and the flight information providing program, the terminal unit as an information receiving unit is preferably a portable terminal having a function of entering said information provision request to deliver the request to said information provision request input section and receiving the information transmitted from said transmission section to display the information. In this case, the user can easily enter the information provision request through the portable terminal (e.g., a mobile telephone, a mobile terminal, or the like) widespread among many users and send it to the information provision request input section, and can also use the portable terminal in order to receive and display the information transmitted from the transmission section of the flight information providing apparatus. Therefore, the user can make simple and easy use of the information providing service by the flight information providing apparatus.
In the flight information providing apparatus, the flight information providing method, and the flight information providing program, the information provision request is preferably entered through the information provision request input section (or at the information provision request input step) when the person purchases an airline ticket or when the person checks in at an airport. Since these airline ticket purchase and check-in procedures are procedures that all the airplane users must be through, the configuration for permitting entry of the information provision request on the occasions of these procedures can provide chances of making use of the information providing service by the flight information providing apparatus, to all the airplane users, which can promote the utilization of the service.
A computer-readable recording medium according to the present invention is characterized in that the flight information providing program in either of the above configurations is recorded therein.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not to be considered as limiting the present invention.